


The End of an Era

by DuskFalling



Category: Fire Emblem: Fuukasetsugetsu | Fire Emblem: Three Houses
Genre: F/F, discord prompt, idk what this is I wrote it when I woke up at 7am just take it, one hour writing challenge
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-29
Updated: 2020-02-29
Packaged: 2021-02-28 04:47:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 648
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22958173
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DuskFalling/pseuds/DuskFalling
Summary: One quiet morning in spring, the Emperor and her Empress prepare to abdicate the throne.
Relationships: Edelgard von Hresvelg/My Unit | Byleth
Comments: 2
Kudos: 69





	The End of an Era

The air is cool and crisp as the sun rises over Enbarr, bathing the city in a warm golden glow. Despite the gentle breeze rustling the leaves of the trees on the Imperial Palace grounds, it's going to be quite a warm day. Edelgard is glad it will be the last time she must wear the heavy regalia of the emperor.

Hearing the soft shifting of fabric behind her, Edelgard turns from the open window. Byleth is sitting up in their shared bed now, hair mussed from sleep, eyes still a little bleary as she attempts to shield them from the light with one hand. The sheet falls from her shoulder and she is nothing short of resplendent.

(Byleth thinks the same of Edelgard, backlit by the morning sun like a halo.)

Byleth gives her a breathtaking smile and Edelgard's world shifts. Any nerves she had about the future - a future that she was so certain she'd never live to see, no matter how hard she fought for it - settle. She sets her forgotten hairbrush down and moves to the bed. She drapes her arms over Byleth's shoulders, linking her wrists at the back of Byleth's neck.

"My teacher," she says musingly, rolling the words in her mouth as if testing the shape of them. "How far we've come."

Reaching out slowly, Byleth takes a few strands of Edelgard's hair, white only at the ends now, between her fingers. She carefully strokes down the silky tresses and says, "You don't have to do this, you know. Where we're going, nobody is going to recognize us anyway."

Edelgard shakes her head. It had been Byleth's idea, but Edelgard still fully intends to cut her hair before departing.

"I want to. It's past time, and I want to fully move on," she says.

Byleth nods.

The silence that blankets them is warm and comfortable until a loud knock on the door disrupts it. Edelgard closes her eyes, adding this to her mental list of things that she will not miss.

"Your Majesty," Hubert's voice calls. "It is time."

"Understood. We will be about shortly," Edelgard answers.

She and Byleth move together. It makes Edelgard smile a little, the routine of it. As if they are one, parted only so that they may fully appreciate the other.

(And Edelgard certainly does appreciate Byleth, stealing glances at her scarred, muscular body in the golden sunlight as she stands unabashed in her nudity.)

While Edelgard does up her hair to wear the crown one final time, Byleth dresses in the armor custom-made for her on the day that she accepted the title of Empress. The colors were designed to compliment Edelgard's own, the shape of it somewhat similar but more akin to that which Byleth wore during the war. A crimson cape with dark navy lining, a white collar, and thick black straps with pink buckles to affix it in place. Plate armor with a matching color scheme, fitting as her war armor had. On her left knee, the single guard that she'd somehow managed to keep all these long years.

Byleth ties her hair back as formally as she's ever truly able to, and moves to help Edelgard with her own regalia. She'd staunchly refused the aid of a chambermaid; she'd made it through the war without one, and would not always have such a luxury (nor, she reasoned, did her citizens).

She could manage on her own.

But it was nice to have a hand.

A hand, she might add, as practiced as Byleth's, who helps her dress in record time. Edelgard stops to gaze out the window one last time, taking in the city, her city. Her home.

Byleth places a warm hand on her shoulder. She turns to see Byleth's soft smile, bittersweet but confident all the same. Edelgard straightens and nods, and they walk out the door together.

**Author's Note:**

> Kudos and comments are much loved, please let me know what you think!


End file.
